Hospital rooms and other convalescent care rooms normally are equipped with bedside tables having a cantilevered portion which is movable over the patient's bed, on which may be placed food trays or the like for easy handling by the patient. A typical hospital bed has a mechanism which permits it to be raised and lowered either manually by means of a crand, or electronically, by means of a motor. It is, therefore, desirable that the overbed table also be able to be raised and lowered to permit a relatively constant spacing between the bed and table. This task is normally accomplished by a crank mechanism.
If the bed is raised while the table is in a relatively lowered position, an interference will develop between the patient and the underside of the table, a most undesirable event.